Winner of first ever Indigenous Juno says music awards still have work to do on reconciliation

Lawrence Martin remem‐ bers being really nervous standing on the stage at the 1994 Juno Awards in Toronto as legendary gui‐ tarist Robbie Robertson read out the list of nomi‐ nees for Best Aboriginal Recording.

"I heard my name and I was just in shock," recalled the 68-year-old from Moose Factory on northern Ontari‐ o's James Bay Coast.

"I could hear my children screaming away up in the balcony and I didn't know what to say so I decided to speak Cree for a few seconds just to gather my thoughts."

Martin, who also went by Wapistan during his musical career, says back 30 years ago he fulfilled a "dream" by recording an album in Nashville, which record com‐ pany EMI decided to release knowing that the Junos were creating a new category for Indigenous music.

"I needed a platform to be able to promote our lan‐ guage and culture and cer‐ tainly that was it," said Mar‐ tin, who performed his song Elders during the live awards show.

"It was important at the time to see Indigenous peo‐ ple being present in society, certainly in music and now you see it in movies and everywhere."

He says he's been thrilled to see how Indigenous music has grown since then, with two different categories at the Junos and more artists in‐ corporating traditional sounds and language into their songs.

"It's gone everywhere," said Martin, who later went into politics, serving as the mayor of the northern On‐ tario towns of Cochrane, Sioux Lookout and the Grand Chief of Mushkegowuk Coun‐ cil, serving the Cree people of Ontario's James Bay Coast.

"Music has always been an instrument to bring peo‐ ple forward."

But he still feels it's impor‐ tant that Indigenous people are visible at the Junos every year.

"It still has not done it's job fully," Martin said.

"Canada has still not changed a lot. We're still dealing with people that don't know a lot about In‐ digenous folks."

As for the Juno trophy, the father of eight says he gave it to one of his daughters when she was very young and she now plans to give it to her daughter one day.